Monday, September 22, 2008

What I don't like about digg/reddit.

As november comes up we tend to see a lot of political advertisements throwing a lot of mud to the other side of the political party. This is good and all (mainly because I don't watch T.V. in the first place) but what really get's my goat is when it starts showing up in the websites I visit. Digg.com and reddit.com have been my two favorite websites for getting all the information I want about Tech. I even dropped my Google Reader because I rely on digg / reddit for my info. But ever since the presidential candidates went up, digg has been getting worse and worse. Several leftist (almost radically leftist) websites frequently hit the top page discussing the latest scandal between McCain and Palin. What's even more amusing is that they are often reported as "innacurate" yet they seem to accumulate thousands of diggs. This isn't bad. It's what's happening to the rightist (even the people who are a smidgen to the right). When they comment something that isn't 100% pro-Obama, they are dugg down into infinity. That's where the problem lies. I wouldn't mind it so much if a radically right article got in there, because it would show to me that Digg is trying to mix it up a little. No, in fact, all I see about McCain is from huffingtonpost or dailykos. What also makes me wonder is what's happening to all the republican diggs? Are they blasted to infinity as well? Wouldn't there be more people of the right wing than there seems to be? It's kind of annoying if you ask me, for being websites that are greatly valued in their "sociability" they are often obliterated by extreme biasm.

I posted a poll on Reddit.com, asking "Why are sites like "Digg" and "Reddit" left-winged?" and to my suprise, I got a lot of responses.

Though there are some things I have to point out. I am a moderate that leans a smidgen to the republican standpoint. (I took a test on who I should vote for, I got 53% McCain and 47% Obama)

I'm going to have to disagree with you. If Reddit was full of rational freethinkers then there would be some dissonance in its communal politics. As I see it there is almost none of that. People who do post comments in opposition to this homogeneous group of opinions often have their opinions disregarded as being so stupid that there is no point in offering a counterargument; I know many of you might find that hard to believe, but, as a moderate, this is the general response when I even speculate that 9/11 wasn't planned by GW or that possibly neocons might have any opinion about anything that may have some merit. The way most of this community outright disregards any objection to its general political opinion makes me think that it is not full of rational freethinkers.

I have not once seen one article praising McCain for anything. It is pedantic and asinine to assume that everything that has to do with McCain is bad. McCain was one of the few Republican candidates that stood up for evolution, doesn't he deserve some credit for that?

"Rejecting talking points that create lots of cognitive dissonance" is basically the definition of being closed minded.

Where everyone thinks the same, nobody is thinking much. - TheCaterPillar


I have to say, this is probably the most thought out response of them all. He clearly understands what I meant by "left-winged" and instead of saying that the "left-winged" are superior, he also notices that many democratic articles are being dugg / upped into the high heavens. Though, I do have a feeling that this person is republican, so let's find a more moderate statement as well.

I wonder what is left wing anymore. The left used to be all about communism and socialism, but you don't have to be a communist or a socialist to despise George Bush and John McCain. And yet, that's the way many neoconservatives would define left wingism.

To me it seems like most people on digg and reddit are more libertarian than leftist. Their criticisms of government are generally about trying to minimize it and keep it out of people's lives as much as possible.

However, I would say diggers and redditors are largely anti-oligarchic, so maybe that makes them left wingers to some extent. - mutatron

Digg and Reddit, in my opinion, have lost their sense of what's important.